Padmini Rout Defeats Mary Ann Gomes For Lead

Padmini Rout Defeats Mary Ann Gomes For Lead
By Arvind Aaron

This result could be the turning point of the event. Is Padmini Rout going to keep this lead after five rounds into the end? The next six rounds would answer that in the National Women’s Premier Chess Championship that is in progress at The Ambassador Hotel, Sangli, Maharashtra.

Padmini Rout of Odisha leads with four points. In the second place are S Vijayalakshmi, Bhakti Kulkarni and Mary Ann Gomes with 3.5 points. Pratyusha who won her first game of the event is making most of the ratings, a gain of 36.8 so far.

Padmini who played her last World Junior at Pune earlier this month had won the gold medal in the Tromso Olympiad for the best performance on board five. This Odisha girl is a natural genius and is accompanied by her parents.

Padmini Rout plays Swati Ghate in round six. To end Mary Ann Gomes’ string of three wins in this prestigious competition, she needs to keep her form into the second half. The oldest in the event, the 1979-born Vijayalakshmi is in the joint second spot and could disturb the calculations of the younger aspirants.

The results (round five): Swati Ghate (Mah) 0.5 lost to K Lakshmi Praneetha (AP) 3; Padmini Rout (Odi) 4 bt Mary Ann Gomes (WB) 3.5; S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 3.5 bt V. Varshini (AP) 1; Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 3.5 drew with Nisha Mohota (WB) 3; Hinduja Reddy (Tel) 0 lost to B Pratyusha (Tel) 2.5; Nimmy George (Ker) 3 drew with Ivana Furtado (Goa) 2.5.